Fire-resisting structure.



575mm I No. 877,354. v PATENTED JAN. 21,1908.

D C. MEEH'AN FIRE RESISTING STRUGTURE. APPLIGATI'ION IILBD SEPT. 25. 1907.

Wit" woes other parts of an apartment or structure,

UNITED sT tr PATENT oEFIoEQ- DAVID (J. MEEHAN, OFYOOVLUMBUS, orno.

FIR'E -RESISTING STRUCTURE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented. Jan. 21,1908.

Application filed September 25. 1907. Serial No. 394.499.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, DAVID C. MEEHAN, a citizen of the United Btates, residing at Columbus, in the county of Franklin and State of Ohio, have invented new and useful Improvements in Fire-Resisting Structures, of which the following'is' a specification.

This invention relates, essentially, to certain useful improvements in fireproof or fire-resisting doors, and panels for doors, wainscoting, ceilings, partition work and the invention consists of the construction and combination of parts which I will hereinafter describe and claim. 1

In the accompanying drawings in which similar letters of reference indicate like parts in the several views ;,Figure 1 represents a door embodying my invention and show- "ing a portion of an outside veneer broken away to expose the underlying protecting sheet. Fig; 2 illustrates a wainscoting to 'which my invention is applied. Figs. 3,. 4

and 5- are modifications which I will hereinafter refer to.

It is well recognized by architects, and builders, fire-insurance adjusters and others familiar With house construction, thatthe thinness, and general weakness of the panels of ordinary doors, partitions, ceilings and like subdividin structures, offers but slight resistance to tie destroying or consuming progress of flames; and that in many instances if the fire which originates in one room can be confined therein for a short time and,until the arrival of the fire-extinguishing apparatus, the spread ofthe' fire to adjoining apartments and possibly the de- 'struction of the building itself, may be prevented.

. In the ordinary building construction wherein paneled structures like doors, partitions, wainseoting, ceilings, etc, are used, the stiles and rails of said structures, are

usually of snllieient thickness to requirean'd struction of the building occurs. This serious loss of property and often life, could be avoided'if the paneled portions connecting apartments had the capacity to resist flames equal to and more substantial stiles and rails, for then the paneled portionswould remain intact sufficiently long to enable the firemen to reach the scene and extinguish the flames in the apartment in which the fire originated. To meet the foregoing conditions and to provide a door which will retard and for a eons'iderableperiod resist the destroying action of flame, and to impart the foregoing desirable properties to the thinner paneled portionsof a door and to the like parts of partitions, wainscoting, ceilings, etc., is an essential object of the present invention As the invention is applicable to doors, or like structures, of substantially uniform thickness, with or without the, usual stiles and rails,I will'first describe myinvention in connection with the door shown in Figs. 1 & 4. Inthese figures the door, A, is composed of a core. or main section which may be made of a number of strips, a, of a more or less cheap grade of Wood glued or otherwise fixed together. These strips may besingle ieces arranged so that the grain will run all 1n,one direction orthe core may be built up of la ers of longitudinal and cross-pieces as is welllmown in this art and as shown in Fig. 5-) When this core has been made along any of the Well known lines usually followed in door construction, I cover one side ofthe same with glue, and I then take a sheet, I), of asbestos or other non-combustible material and lay it upon the 'lued surface ofthe core so that the two willunite- I then indent, slit or perforate the sheet at numerous points by suitable means, as by rolling over the sheet a heavy roller studded with fine points. As this roller is m ved over said sheet, its points indent, slit, or perforate the sheet and also the resistance offered by the thicker termed burs are formed on the inner or glue-coated side of the sheet and which burs, produced by the roller'poin'ts, are

forced, aecom anied by the glue, down into the correspon ing indentations made by the points in the core, thereby firmly holding the sheet to the core. When this operation is finished, I trim the edges of the asbestos sheet to a size somewhat smaller than the core after which I apply a coating of glue to the outer side of said sheet, which glue will enter the pits or indentations in said sheet, and upon this outer surface of- 'said'sheet I place, a veneer, trimmed ap roximately to the size of the core. By suita le mechanism,

not herein shownythe structure is now subjected to pressurewith the resultthat the veneer is securely glued to the asbestos sheet and to the underlying core, as'the pressure applied to the structure has driven the glue through the indented, slitted or perforated portions ofthe sheet and forms an effective onding medium between the outside veneer and the core. The other side. of the core will be covered in a like manner. I have, therefore, an efficient and pra'cticalway of 'oining together the fibrous-fabric sheet an the wood so that they will hold together under ordinary I conditions woods themselves, whi e, under the influence of fire, 1 have found that the face veneer will char but will not ignite when underlaid with the asbestos, and that where the asbestos is not used the whole will ignite and burn readily.

It will be apparent that under the most trying conditions of fire 'I'Ishall expose to the destroying effects of flame inflammable material of say less than 1/ 16 inch in thickness,

this representing the exterior veneer, which if it should fall oil will do butlittle damage ordinarily, while in fthat-event the asbestos 'driven'into and locked to the wood core by the indented or burr'ed portions, and held in place by the glue, which will char but will uite as ,well as the' I show a broken view of a portion of a stile which may belong to a door, Wainscoti ceiling or. like structure, and wherein are atively thin panel is shown constructed in the'mane ner hereinibeforedescribed. I

' Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. A fire-resisting structure comprising a core or interior section, .a face-veneer, a noncombustible fibrous 'sheet underlying the veneer, and an adhesivebetween the. veneer and sheet and between said sheet and core, said sheet being punctured to form burs which interlock with indented portions in the core.

2. In a fire-resisting structure the combination with a core, of a sheet of non-combustible, fibrous material, applied thereto and having portions upset an forced into the adj acnt surface of'the core, and a faceveneer fixed to the outer side'of said sheet.

3. it. fire-resisting structure com rising a core, a sheet of asbestos placed t ereover' and punctured and having the upset or-" tions surrounding the punctures forced into the adjacent surface of the core, a faceveneer overlying the outer side of the asbestossheet,- and an adhesive between the sheetand the veneer and core and entering the punctured portions of said sheet.

4. A' fire-resisting element composed of inner and outermembergand an intermediate hon-combustible member lued thereto and having portions upset and mterengaged with said inner member, and means for securing the outer member to said intermedia-te member.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

, DAVID C. MEEHAN.

Witnesses:

CHAs. H FRANK, Jenn A. Common. 

